This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Drew Archer: In the Bag

So what is Drew Archer’s bag? Actually, he’s interested in your bag. That’s because his bag is handbags. Drew designs, makes, and sells bags at his store, Blackkat Leather, in Chester.

According to Sosse Baker, Drew was the first person to sign up to participate in Pegs: Creative Challenge and Silent Auction, to benefit the Chester Historical Society on Saturday, April 7 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Chester Meeting House. Baker has organized the program since it began more than a decade ago.

There’s a deeper connection between the two, as well: Along with his own handbags, Drew makes braided leather handles for the baskets Baker weaves.

Participants in the Creative Challenge have received objects with a connection to Chester to fashion an art work inspired by their own imaginations. This year the test will be to use pegs, a little more than three inches long, that were found in the M.S. Brooks factory that still stands on Liberty Street, though the factory has long since ceased operation. Over the years, finished pieces for earlier Creative Challenges have included sculptures, mobiles, jewelry, three-dimensional wall hangings, and photographs. This year’s fundraiser and silent auction will showcase the varied talents of more than 30 participants, including Drew’s creative bag of tricks.

For the past year, Drew’s shop, Blackkat Leather, has been at the corner of Main Street in a basement store that previously was the site of a cupcake bakery, but he has now moved to a new location farther down Main Street occupied for many years by Ceramica. His new store is scheduled to open on Friday, April 6, the day before the Creative Challenge.

Drew has done all the carpentry on the new store, building a variety of display shelves as well as a work area where he’ll be making purses.

“I wanted every detail to be hand done,” he says.

The carpentry is something he began to learn from his father, Bill Archer, while growing up in Old Lyme. He graduated from Old Lyme High School in 2008 and then attended Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, concentrating on construction management. After graduation, he found a position with an engineering company in Santa Cruz, California. His living space was too small for a woodshop, so he began to work with leather.

“It started when I saw a man’s travel bag and I couldn’t afford it, so I made one,” he says.

After people saw the result, they began to ask if he could make something like it for them.

Ultimately, the leatherwork won out over construction. Still, he expresses some bemusement about how his career has evolved.

“If you asked me three or four years ago, I would never have guessed I would be here,” he says.

Drew’s job changed, but there was a constant in his life, Cassandra Amu, to whom he is now married. They met at Wentworth. She moved with him to California and then back cross country to Connecticut in 2016.

“Connecticut was more affordable than California and I could start my own business here,” Drew says.

Cassie studied architecture at Wentworth and now works at Centerbrook Architects. She also helps Drew with Blackkat.

“I do the designs; she takes care of social media,” Drew says.

Why the name Blackkat Leather? That’s easy.

“We had a black cat,” Drew explains.

For Drew and Cassie, home prices in this area were not shocking numbers when they compared them to California.

“In California, we couldn’t have afforded a shack,” he says.

Here the couple was able to purchase a home in East Haddam. Drew has done the renovation work himself; so far he has tackled the kitchen, bathroom, roof, and chimney.

Chester, Drew says, reminds him in some ways of Santa Cruz in California.

“It has restaurants, art galleries, shops, a different mix of people; it is a unique town. It about as close as you can get to Santa Cruz, but there is not as much night life,” he says.

Drew designs all the handbags he sells, studying what people are using and getting feedback from clients. He emphasizes simplicity and the quality of the leather.

“They’re [the purses] built to last forever,” he says.

In addition, he makes other leather goods including wallets for both men and women, briefcases, key chains, leather bracelets, coasters, and belts. The smaller goods use the pieces of leather left after cutting out the handbags and brief cases.

“I never have enough belts,” he says. “I fill up the rack and a week or two later they are gone.”

Learning to make leather goods was a process of trial and error for Drew. He is self-taught, from making the cardboard patterns for the bags to working with the sewing machine he uses to assemble the final products. Some of the sewing, he adds, must be done by hand.

Drew is looking forward to the upcoming creative challenge. He knows what he will make for the silent auction: a handbag, of course, using the wooden pegs as handles. Still, there is something he does not yet know: whose winning bid will bag the bag.

Pegs: Creative Challenge and Silent Auction

The Chester Historical Society hosts Pegs: Creative Challenge and Silent Auction on Saturday, April 7 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Chester Meeting House. Tickets are available at Maple and Main Gallery and Lark in Chester. For more information, email ChesterCTHistoricalSociety@gmail.com or call 860-558-4701.